University of Florida Department of History
HIS 4956
The Sites of German History in Munich
Professor Geoffrey J. Giles
Fall Semester 2011
Munich’s Hofbräuhaus in the snow,
November 2010
Updated 18 October 2011
Munich has the reputation of being the secret “cultural capital” of Germany. It has also been
the setting of some of the most significant events in modern German history. It lends itself as
an ideal location for a mini-course, because the historic center is more compact and
manageable on foot than cities like Berlin.
Professor Giles lived in Munich for over a year, conducting research as an Alexander von
Humboldt Fellow, and has returned there for several summer research stays, most recently in
2010. He is thus well prepared to give lectures on the history of the city, and guided
commentaries during the field trips.
Credit: 2 hours to count as H or I, and toward requirements for the History major or
minor
Prerequisites: None
Readings
Required:
Dietrich Orlow, A History of Modern Germany, 1871 to Present (New York: Prentice
Hall, 2009)
Highly recommended for non-History majors:
Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing History. 6th edition (Bedford, 2006)
ISBN: 0312535031
Recommended books specifically about Munich or Bavaria (in chronological order by
topic):
James Harris, The People Speak!: Anti-Semitism and Emancipation in NineteenthCentury Bavaria (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994)
Maria Makela, The Munich Secession: Art and Artists in Turn-of-the-Century Munich
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990)
UF in Munich course outline
Page 2
Peter Jelavich, Munich and
Theatrical Modernism: Politics, Playwriting and
Performance, 1890-1914 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985)
Allan Mitchell, Revolution in Bavaria, 1918-1919; the Eisner regime and the Soviet
Republic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965)
Geoffrey Pridham, Hitler’s Rise to Power: The Nazi Movement in Bavaria 1923-1933
(New York: Harper & Row, 1974)
David Clay Large, Where Ghosts Walked: Munich’s Road to the Third Reich (New York:
Norton, 1997)
The Dachau Concentration Camp, 1933 to 1945: Text- and photo documents from the
exhibition (Munich: Karl Lipp, 2005)
Inge Scholl, The White Rose : Munich, 1942-1943 (Middletown: Wesleyan U.P., 1983)
Hermann Vinke, The Short Life of Sophie Scholl (Cambridge: Harper & Row,1984)
Inge Jens (ed.), At the heart of the White Rose : letters and diaries of Hans and Sophie
Scholl (New York: Harper & Row, 1987)
Annette Dumbach & Jud Newborn, Sophie Scholl and the White Rose (Oxford: OneWorld,
2006)
Gavriel Rosenfeld, Munich and Memory: Architecture, Monuments, and the Legacy of the
Third Reich (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000)
Kay Schiller & Christopher Young, The 1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of
Modern Germany (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010)
Assignments
Students will be required to keep a journal during the stay in Munich, writing some
200-250 words per day, including some informed assessment and reflection about the
role of the sites visited in the history of Germany. The journal should be typed up
before being submitted in hard copy.
In addition, a 2,000-word research paper will be required, on a topic to be agreed
between the student and the instructor, following individual mentoring. The topic
should be fixed well before departure for Munich, in order to allow some advance
reading and research, and the completed paper handed in no later than one week
after the return from Munich. Ideally a draft of the paper should be completed
before leaving for Germany, and material gathered during the program added after
returning to the US.
Possible essay topics on Bavarian history might include, but are not limited to:
 The 1848 Revolution in Bavaria
 The Role of Bavaria in the Foundation of the German Empire
 Richard Wagner’s Relationship to Bavaria and King Ludwig II
 Anti-Semitism in Bavaria
 Public Health in Bavaria
 Artists in the Munich Secession Movement
 The 1918/19 Revolution in Munich
 The Dachau Concentration Camp
 The White Rose Student Resistance Group
I am willing to consider other topics more broadly concerned with Germany as a
whole, since the literature on Bavarian history available in English is rather sparse.
However, I would like some consideration of Bavarian history in these papers, too.
Possible topics might include:
UF in Munich course outline
Page 3
 The Arms Race prior to World War One
 The Expansion and Role of the German Navy prior to 1914
 The Economic Situation during the Weimar Republic
 The Rise of the Nazi Party
 The Polycratic Nature of the Third Reich
 The Wirtschaftswunder of the 1960s
This is a research paper, and must be based on at least four scholarly sources,
including at least two books, and at least one scholarly article.
Due date for papers: Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Grading
Journal
Research paper
Academic quality of overall participation
40%
50%
10%
Please note that much of this grade depends on the research paper. In Munich we
shall all be living and traveling together on close terms, and we will all get along
together marvelously, if previous years are any guide. I will doubtless feel at the end
of the trip that I would love to give every student an ‘A’. But this is a regular UF
academic course, as far as grades go, and there will be a grade spread. So do put
every effort into these written assignments. I am happy to mentor students about the
papers, and that is why I strongly urge you to do most of the research, and some of
the writing, before departure for Munich.
Scheduled Program Outline
[Subject to change in Germany, especially weather-related in case of snowstorms]
There will be three mandatory pre-trip seminars on the UF campus on Sunday
evenings, in order to dispense with classroom time in Germany itself. These will take
place from 5-8 p.m. in Flint Hall on the following Sundays:
2, 9 & 16 October
You must attend these background seminars, which are part of the course
Su 2 Oct
Brief overview of German and Bavarian history from 1800
Su 9 Oct
Bavarian royal patronage and the growth of Munich as a capital
The Bavarian Revolution of 1918-1919
Su 16 Oct
Discussion of the main textbook
Munich in the Third Reich
Documentary film on Dachau
Munich in Ruins
November
F 18
Sa 19
Depart from Gainesville
Arrive in Munich
Munich’s Town Hall and Glockenspiel
St. Peter’s Church (skeleton of St. Munditia!)
Asam Church
UF in Munich course outline
Page 4
Su 20
Field trip to Hohenschwangau & Neuschwanstein royal castles in the
Bavarian Alps
M 21
Historical Walking Tour I :
The Palace of Justice (where anti-Nazi students were condemned to
death); St. Michael’s church (with the tomb of King Ludwig I); and
Munich’s cathedral (with a footprint of the devil!)
p.m. The Wittelsbach royal palace (Residenz) in Munich, including the
Bavarian crown jewels, and the rococo Cuvilliés Theater
T 22
Field trip to Dachau concentration camp (including a behind-the-scenes
show-and-tell with the archivist)
W23
Historical Walking Tour II:
St. Anna’s church; Nazi monumental architecture; the “ice stream”
(popular year-round with surfers!); the “English Garden” park (popular
with nudists though not in November!); a section of the Berlin Wall; the
University (with White Rose exhibition)
p.m. Alte Pinakothek (old masters art museum, inc. Leonardo da Vinci)
5-7 p.m. Guided tour behind the scenes at Hitler’s former headquarters
Th 24
Historical Walking Tour III:
Sites of the assassination of the Bavarian prime minister in 1919, an
anti-Semitic pogrom in 1413, and Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch in 1923; the
First World War memorial
p.m. City Museum (exhibition on history of Munich; separate exhibit on
the Third Reich), and the Jewish Museum
Late afternoon: possibility of other museums on your own
(Thursday = late opening of certain museums)
F 25
Field trip to Nuremberg, with old town, and Nuremberg Rally grounds
and museum
Sa 26
Field trip to Salzburg in Austria, with Christmas Market
Su 27
Field trip to Ingolstadt (medieval town on the River Danube)—First World
War Museum, the baroque church of Maria de Victoria, cathedral, etc.
M 28
Free day for shopping and sights
Most museums closed on Mondays, but the following are open:
 Deutsches Museum (the national museum of science and technology)
 Neue Pinakothek (mainly 19th-century paintings and sculpture)
 Nymphenburg royal palace (a mini-Versailles)
T 29
Return to Gainesville
December
W7
Research papers and typed journals due